Family rejoices as Malaysian police identify woman held as 'slave' in UK for 30 years

Family rejoices as Malaysian police identify woman held as 'slave' in UK for 30 years

Updated 27 November 2013, 21:20 AEDT

A Malaysian family believes a long-lost relative is one of three women allegedly held as slaves in London for 30 years and is travelling to Britain to try to identify her.

Mohamad Noh Mohamad Dom, the brother-in-law of one of the women held captive as a 'slave' in the UK for 30 years. (Credit: AFP)

Police in Kuala Lumpur have reportedly said one of three women allegedly held as slaves in London for 30 years is a Malaysian who went missing in the 1960s.

Malaysia's top police official Khalid Abu Bakar, citing information provided by British police, confirmed the woman was Siti Aishah Abdul Wahab, The Star newspaper said in a brief report.

Siti Aishah, who would now be 69, had left to study in Britain around 1968 but her family lost track of her soon after that, her relatives said.

"I will hug her and cry if she comes back home," Siti Aishah's eldest sister, Hasnah Abdul Wahab, 88, said when told of the police announcement.

"I thank Allah he has realised my prayers to meet Siti Aishah before I die. I will hold a feast to thank Allah. We have been looking for her for a long, long time."

She was speaking in the family's hometown of Jelebu in southern Malaysia, as she held a photo of Siti Aishah as a young woman.

Police have arrested two people identified by British media as radical Maoists for holding the three women.

The three 'slaves', who also included a 57-year-old Irish woman and a 30-year-old Briton believed to have spent her life in servitude, were freed on October 25 after one of them secretly contacted a charity.

Police said the women, who are believed to have been living in a flat in Brixton, south London, were brainwashed and had reported they had been beaten, but did not appear to have been sexually abused.

Police said the two older victims had met their male captor through a "shared political ideology" and initially lived with him as part of a collective.

Siti Aishah's brother-in-law Mohamad Noh Mohamad Dom said his wife Kamar Mahtum had flown to London on Wednesday (local time) to identify her sister after a British media outlet earlier told the family the woman may be her.

"We have mixed feelings," he said.

"Happy, because we believe we have found a lost family member, and sad, because we hear that she is sick and has been held captive for more than 30 years."

He said the family was notified by the British media that the woman was believed to be Siti Aishah.

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